Give Me Liberty
by helicase
Summary: A certain Rookie goes looking for his team members while a young woman struggles to cheat death; an Engineer fights its bonds and finds unexpected allies. New Mombasa may have fallen, but those left behind will fight until they are free... or dead.
1. Chapter 1

Full Summary: The Rookie goes looking for his missing team members and finds something very different in return. An Engineer fights impossible bonds, and its small successes are futile in the long run unless it can find some help. A young woman with a passion for survival does all she can to escape death at the hands of the invading Covenant. New Mombasa may have fallen, but those left behind will fight until they are free… or dead.

Notes: I've not played ODST for a while, and my timeline is pretty okay if not a little hazy. My hours might be a little off, but I looked up some details, and hopefully this story doesn't fall flat on its face. This is semi-serious, you're warned. Not that much humor, but not that much SRSBSNSOMGHUMANITYISDYING! OH AND, I don't really remember what color each species of Covenant's blood is. So I winged it. Any inaccuracies I blame on A.) myself or B.) the Halo Wikia, depending on the information. Reviews and concrit welcome.

EDIT: Fixed up some things; like when I slipped and said "Alexandra HAMILTON" instead of "Alexandra WASHINGTON", which might be an aftereffect of me having a huge hard-on for Alexander Hamilton. Whatever. Also, I got some information from a lovely reviewer - whom I will praise next chapter - and fixed the errors that the good sir/madam pointed out. Side note: I know Engineers are supposed to be lovely, docile and utterly helpful creatures. Average Buoyancy is going to be different, because I said so and because this plot demands it. You'll see more about this later.

* * *

Chapter I

The heavy, armored foot landed with a terrific thud inches away from Alexandra's face. Her body was pressed as close as possible to the carpeted and now-bloodstained rug, her breath coming in ragged – if not extremely quiet – gasps, and her heart pumping far faster than normal in her fear. A flimsy, inch-thick wooden closet door was all separating her from life and almost certain death. She licked her lips, sweaty palms grasping a pistol, the weight and feel unfamiliar in her hands. It had belonged to her boyfriend – now deceased – and was the only weapon she had available. Although, when Alex realistically thought about it, a pistol was not going to protect her from the hordes of Covenant now filtering through the city, and was probably not going to be of any use if that Brute opened the door.

The twenty-three year old held perfectly still, her thoughts belayed by sudden grunts of the Brute and the chatter of what sounded like Grunts or Jackals. By no means could Alex speak any Covenant tongues, but as an enterprising survivalist, she had to know how many enemies were threatening her life. The Brute growled lowly, then the high chatter of one or two Jackals reached her ears. Three seemed like a small group, but in truth Alex had no idea how many Covenant traveled together. All she knew was that she had to get out as soon as she could, hopefully alive and with all limbs attached. The details of her escape plan had not been determined yet, but if Alexandra Washington was good at anything, it was thinking on her feet.

The Brute moved on, accompanied by at least one of the Jackals. Then there was a thud as the other Jackal, who had remained behind, put its weapon – the type of said weapon unknown to Alex – on the floor for a moment. Seizing the opportunity, the woman slowly slid up to her knees, and then to her feet. Her elbow hit a hanger, which bumped into another, and another, until a small clanging leaked out of the closet space. The Jackal trilled slightly in alarm, and went to the door. Alex tensed every muscle in her body, the two summers of kickboxing that she had in tenth and eleventh grade giving her at least a gist of how to carry herself in a fight. If she could look at herself from a third-person perspective, she'd realize how inanely stupid it was to go after an alien with nothing but her fists; the pistol was an even worse idea because of her lack of experience. So, she settled for this – the Jackal slid the door to one side and got a faceful of human knuckles.

It staggered back with a yelp and Alex kicked it in its diminutive chest, sending it further back to the metal wall; it sank to the floor. She ran forward, her hand hurting terribly – she'd never punched anything bare-fisted before, and it hurt like hell – and brought her foot down on its head. There was a sickening crunch as blue blood leaked out the sides of its broken skull and onto her already-stained carpet. She was panting, adrenaline finally catching up with the thirty-second encounter, making her blood beat loudly behind her temples and her mouth-bone dry. She licked her lips again, and looked down the hallway, hoping nothing had heard the 'battle'. Nothing stirred. She wiped her flat sneaker on the rug and looked at the pistol still in her right palm. The Brute and other Jackal had left her apartment, and she had to do the same as soon as possible.

Alex glanced around, the adrenaline slowly fading, leaving her with an empty feeling in her chest cavity. The pistol needed to come with her, but by no means was she putting it in her pocket – it would end up with her shooting herself in the leg or foot, something she couldn't afford to do. The young woman finally took an old and extremely long scarf, some relic of a forgotten great-auntie, and tied it twice around her waist and then around the pistol, making an immensely silly-looking holster. She sighed and looked out the window, and then at the clock. It was broken, but the sky outside was dark, and unless the Covenant also made big black clouds when they invaded a planet, it was nighttime. Alex had no time to lose – she'd already been hiding when the huge shockwave shook the city, rending some of the taller buildings in half while the frightened citizens boarded any vehicle out of the city that they could find.

Michael had convinced her to stay – he said they'd be safer if they waited a little before trying to leave the city. It made sense at the time, for their apartment was far off from the Covenant ships, and the trains were packed to exploding. Leaving would mean robbery and even death from other panicked humans, and waiting to slip away from the advancing Covenant sounded much more intelligent. Michael had gone out and promised to return, leaving her with his pistol and a rolled-up wad of cash – whatever that was worth now – and hadn't returned since. Alex was positive he was either dead or ran off without her, the latter sounding very unlike her boyfriend. But some part of her wasn't quite sure he was dead, or rather, completely unbelieving of the possibility and absolutely incapable of handling the idea of his death. Whatever the case, she hoped he was okay, but her own survival became her biggest concern. In retrospect, Michael was a dumbass.

She walked across the apartment and touched the terminal on her wall. It lit up, displaying the familiar symbol of the Superintendent. The perky voice of the AI came online.

"Hello, Ms. Washington, what may I do for you?" The terminals were not uncommon, but weren't so frequent either. They had only been installed in some of the newer apartment buildings in the city, providing something like an interactive map of the city which displayed weather, traffic times, an the best route to work. It was fully programmable as far as owner occupation and preferences, even the owner's favorite cafés and restaurants. In short, the Superintendent made it possible to help the thousands of people living in New Mombasa through these terminals, and Alex was finally glad she had one.

"Please give me the quickest route out of the city from this location." The fear had not faded, but was merely held at bay. Her voice was barely above a whisper and she automatically lowered the volume on the terminal with one or two motions of her finger on the terminal screen. The Superintendent obeyed, laying out a fully detailed map of the city, with current reports of damaged roads and highways, along with Covenant positions, which Alex was not expecting.

"What the hell? Superintendent, how do you know about Covenant positions? Shouldn't that be classified information?"

The question wasn't based on fact, only Alex's assumptions, and the Superintendent seemed to be confused at it.

"I am sorry; I do not understand your inquiry." Alex sighed and rubbed her forehead, trying to think of a better way to phrase it.

"You displayed Covenant positions on this map; however, would it not make sense for the Covenant to keep their positions to themselves? I can understand the positions marked that have already happened, but you have - " She pointed gently to a few locations on the map, leaving tiny red dots where she did so. " – marked Covenant positions that have yet to move into place." The tiny red dots were marked with dates in the future by a few hours; as she studied the clock on the bright screen and did the math in her head, Alex figured that it had been about six hours since the blast that had shaken the whole city. Whatever had caused said blast, Alex didn't know, and wasn't quite sure if she wanted to know either.

The Superintendent flickered; its face changed on the screen to something akin to a grin. Or as close as it could get to a grin without a mouth.

"Nothing is unknown to the Superintendent." It sounded so close to bragging that Alex felt like laughing – an AI, bragging! She did not, however, and merely glanced to the smiling symbol and back to map.

"Could you please download this map and directions to this exit point to my earlink?" She slipped the small piece of technology out of her ear and set it on the terminal's data-transfer pad. The Superintendent followed her order and made a small, happy noise when it was finished. Alex clipped it back to her ear, hearing the voice of the Superintendent automatically giving her instructions away from her building. She smiled briefly, aware of her small success and even more aware of the hell she was about to face.

The Superintendent graced her with a final warning, "Have a good journey, Ms. Washington. Also: It would be logical to reconsider who you consider enemy and who you consider friend." Alex was already glancing out the door, searching for aliens, and was caught off-guard at this comment.

"…Superintendent? What do you mean?" The terminal had already shut down, the friendly face of the AI disappearing from view. A leaden stone of fear dropped once more into Alex's stomach, and she swallowed dryly. Something about those words, coming from an entity such as the Superintendent, seemed… lethal. A dumb AI had only pregenerated material, and she was fairly sure that no one had programmed these words into it. She licked her lips one more time before wading into the darkness that had consumed the rest of New Mombasa.

She hoped no aliens were waiting to eat her at the foot of the stairs. It was what the media said, anyways.

* * *

"Hunf!"

The noise was unintentional; it became the body's natural reaction when the heavy-armor clad ODST hit the concrete below his drop pod. His vision blacked a little at the edges, but after a few minutes of deep gasping he could stand straight without vertigo or ripping pain in his lungs. The Rookie glanced around, unfamiliar with the city of New Mombasa, or even the planet Earth. He had seen pictures of it, naturally, and had heard of humanity's home planet frequently, but had never had the occasion or, indeed, honor to visit. Seeing New Mombasa in ruins was discouraging, to say the least. He shook his head, refocusing, taking strands of information and throwing them together into a web of something resembling a plan. He had to find his team members – that was first and foremost, and afterwards he could concern himself with whatever that woman Dare had planned. Although, if he found Dare first, he would probably have to go along with her classified ONI orders and to hell with his team members. It felt a little wrong, sure, but he couldn't exactly refuse her either.

Rookie's eyes locked on an odd-looking Terminal across the street, its flickering lights and bright promise of better health taking his interest. He sprinted across and studied the small packages on their racks, and finally selected one and administered it to himself. There was a slightly heady feeling as the synthetic compounds mended his small injuries from the fall, and probably gave him a miniscule injection of some sort of anti-depressant that aided in his overall feeling of wellbeing. The symbol – a circle with two smaller circles in the middle-top, spoke to him, telling him how glad it was that he was better, and to come back if he ever needed anything else.

The ODST realized with a jolt that the symbol was supposed to be a face, and the thing speaking to him was New Mombasa's AI. He blinked and looked around again, scanning for hostiles or any sign of other drop pods. The only thing he saw was flickering green-white lights and crushed automobiles, some flipped and others merely mangled beyond recognition. Dark outlines of tropical and completely foreign trees broke up the skyline, meshing with the flat shapes of buildings and turning them into interesting silhouettes against the purple-gray sky.

Rookie proceeded to walk down the street to the right, looking around as much as he could, trying to absorb it all. He supposed this looked like any other city, but something about its desolate and lonely state fascinated him – he was completely alone in what should have been a familiar world, and it was the fact that he was so isolated in this city that turned it into a strange place, full of shapes that became menacing and others that became merely melancholy. The trace of humanity, humanity that had fled so hastily, was more eerie than the loss of the humanity itself.

A grunt broke his contemplation of New Mombasa, and the ODST's head snapped up as he flicked on his Specs. A red outline showed up on his HUD fifty feet away, and Rookie automatically recognized it as a Brute, followed by smaller outlines that could only be Grunts. He sprinted to one side, behind the concrete side-wall of some stairs. When he peered out, he realized they had not seen him, for he had been expecting Needler needles and plasma shots to follow him into his cover. Glancing at the weapon in his hand – he hadn't really noticed it before this moment – he blinked and switched out the silenced SMG with the Magnum strapped to his side. Taking aim through it's sights, he aimed for the Grunts first.

As a relatively experienced soldier – it took several years of experience with another special forces unit to even think about joining ODST – Rookie knew that he probably shouldn't go for the Grunts first. However, he found Grunts unbearably annoying, and preferred to kill them first. After a few battles of doing this, he found that this method worked the best for him – the Brute would become slightly discouraged at losing his smaller comrades and would not do as well in the battle that Rookie would take to him afterwards, which the Brute was unlikely to win in the first place. So, Rookie aimed for the Grunts, and fired.

The first two shots were headshots; the Grunts did not even have time to wail their little wails before they keeled over into oblivion and the hard asphalt. The third one screamed and began running around in scared circles near the Brute; the fourth cried in anguish that one of the two dead was his brother, and he would kill whoever was responsible for his emotional plight. Rookie shrugged and shot the one complaining, and then aimed carefully for the one running around. They died shortly; Rookie moved onto the Brute.

Sliding his Magnum neatly away and pulling the silenced SMG off his back, he moved out into the open, firing directly at the Brute's chestplate. Said Brute roared in anger and fired his Spiker with gusto while his shields took the bullets. Rookie felt most of the needles from the Spiker glancing off of his armor; a few got through, but the ODST ignored them for the moment. The Brute's shields failed – Rookie slid in and delivered a forceful elbow to his enemy's skull. The fuzzy alien roared his final anger as the human he was battling with repeated the earlier melee, and then abruptly cut off as his bulky, furry body hit the road.

Rookie pulled one or two needles out of his arms and one particularly annoying one out of his thigh, and then moved on, without any idea of where he was going or how he would find his team members.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

An Engineer, whose name was Average Buoyancy, was very, very vexed. So vexed, in fact, that it locked itself inside a courtyard so that maybe – just maybe – nothing would try to blow it up. It had floated away from it's Brute earlier while the Brute was distracted with disciplining whiny Grunts, and was now aimlessly staring at the ugly maroon sky.

And this was it: the mid-life crisis. All Engineers feared this – the point where the burden of imprisonment was just _too_ much, and all will to not explode was blown away in the face of overwhelming despair. The Huragok trilled sadly. It was alone on a foreign planet, kept here by large packs of explosives attached to its body, ordered around by annoying and smelly Brutes, and it never had anything to fix – the other Covenant didn't trust it with weapons or vehicles. The only thing that the Engineer could offer was the overshields, something to boost effectiveness in combat. Usually, other Engineers manually blew themselves up whenever their unit died, not because it was all torn up about the unit being dead, but because it was so fed up with this _bullshit_. The amount of paperwork that one had to go through if one's unit was 'eliminated' was outrageous.

However, some Engineers – a very rare group indeed – wanted true freedom, not the tainted peace of death. This Engineer being spoken about was one of these few, and had taken the first step by escaping from its rank-smelling Brute. Now it needed someone – or something, such as another Engineer – to get these explosives off of it. The natural gases produced to fill it's air sacs was very flammable, and while a little fire here or there wasn't that deadly, having huge explosives that went off at the smallest lick of flame was. Of course, asking other Engineers to give up their lives so that one could survive was almost preposterous, especially because none of them could see the point in living anyway. They were computers, created by the Forerunners and existing to serve the Forerunner's needs – but the Forerunners were dead, and their children, the Covenant, were abusing the Engineers with these ridiculous explosive harnesses. The Engineer sighed again.

A plan began to form; an abnormal plan for a peace-loving Huragok because it had a violent intent. Average Buoyancy, however, was beyond caring. Its normally docile nature was converted into a nature that begged for action and change, anything different from this endless servitude without real joy. The Engineer would have been happy to serve either side of the conflict, as long as it could repair and fix whatever was needed. However, due to its... rebellious nature, the Brute overseeing the Huragok had denied it all access to anything potentially dangerous. Now that there was an oppurtunity for Average Buoyancy to get what it wanted so badly... it would take it.

Its mind, a computer in all senses of the word, was calculating; large formulae and all possibilities were unrolling behind the Engineer's multiple eyes. It chose all the right and logical options, and prepared itself for the journey through the city, knowing what things it would have to avoid. The Huragok was also fully aware that the possibility of exploding was very high, percentage-wise, but its mind was swelling with an emotion it had not felt before – excitement, and maybe a little bit of something else it couldn't quite identify. Was it hope?

Average Buoyancy trilled happily, and floated over to the door leading into its hideout courtyard. It slid open sharply; the Engineer was not prepared for what it saw outside the courtyard.

This could complicate things.

* * *

End Notes: I'm a little disheartened to figure out that no one likes ODST. I found the plot engaging, and its brevity was made up for by AWESOMEMUSIC and awesome Engineers. Hnnngh, common public opinion sucks! Raaaahhh! I'm going all rebel and indie! Just kidding, but seriously bros, wtf.

Anywho, review. You know you love yourself some badass Rookie {I found him pretty hot, anyway}


	2. Chapter 2

Notes: Thank you to all who reviewed on the first chapter; here's the second one for your scrutiny. ESPECIALLY Kaprikorn the Ancient, you made my life a little more perfect C': I am grateful for your information, it will help me throughout the rest of this story. A little more 'RookieCookie' (I just heard that term; it is glorious, thank you Spirit) and a little more Average Buoyancy in this chapter. Oh, Average Buoyancy is not doing what you think it is…

EDIT: Found some details about New Jerusalem that I wasn't aware of before. One or two paragraphs have been revised, no big.

* * *

Chapter II

* * *

Average Buoyancy trilled, a keening sound that, if any humans were listening, would have broken hearts. It floated backwards as quickly as it could, but the Engineer's Brute wasted no time. A large net settled over the Huragok and as the net was slowly lowered Average Buoyancy trilled even louder, forming something akin to a child's scream. The Brute finally pulled the net down enough for him to reach out one ham-like fist and grip the Engineer by the throat. Average Buoyancy stopped all noise whatsoever.

"Hnnnnn, you stupid Huragok, now you will get bigger harness, and I will never let you escape again" All Engineers were capable of understanding Covenant languages and dialects, but this human-speak that the Brute was using was new, and it took Average Buoyancy a minute to figure through what its overseer was saying. It floated along meekly behind its Brute, whatever plans it had before now completely ruined.

Death was truly the only option. The thought killed Average Buoyancy – no pun intended – and the Huragok keened sadly. The Brute snapped at it in English again, and the Engineer silenced itself. The larger, hairier alien stopped in the middle of a big intersection, and glanced around as if waiting for someone. Average Buoyancy followed suit, and saw nothing but broken technology. Its 'arms' itched to fix them, but it didn't dare.

Finally the Brute stood straight, as if in salutation. The Huragok had no idea what was going on until two sets of hairy, enormous and terrible-smelling arms settled over its air sacs. Its trill of alarm was cut off as a higher-ranked Brute than its own repeated an earlier gesture of gripping Average Buoyancy by the throat. It could feel a larger, heavier harness being strapped to its back… the heavy clips being settled into the flesh surrounding its air sacs, oh! The Engineer had almost forgotten the pain of having a harness inserted. It trilled despite the hand over it's air way, the noise strangled and soft, as its body jerked, trying any method possible to get away from these lunatics.

Something jolted. The Brutes released Average Buoyancy; it fled as quickly as it could, up, up, away from this, anything to get away. It didn't realize until it was a safe distance away that the harness hadn't been fully attached. The confusion that passed through the Huragok was momentary, as it turned around to see…

Oh… that was unexpected.

* * *

Rookie pulled the helmet out of the flickering LED display. The thick military letters on the forehead read 'DARE'. He glanced at the word, heard familiar dialogue in his head and recalled images of the drop, seeing the ODST on his right screen wearing a helmet bearing this word. The helmet seemed to have flown from a far distance, as if propelled by great force. The ODST looked out the window and down, scanning the ground for any signs of recent human activity.

That's when he caught sight of it – the drop pod, slightly smoking, thrust into the concrete of the plaza below. The woman who owned this helmet had landed there, but was there no longer. For his sake as well as her own, Rookie hoped Dare was still alive. If she wasn't, ONI would have a fit and the whole team would be punished – especially Buck. The new ODST wasn't particularly familiar with the men on his team, but he would never wish ONI's wrath on anyone.

Rookie stared at the helmet for a little longer, mulling over his options; when he finished, he set it back on the ground and exited the building, killing a few Grunts along the way. He found it odd that the streets glowed; on Luna there were roads, but none of them were illuminated like this. The center dashes glowed cold blue and the outer ones an equally chilly orange. Whoever said that orange and red hues were warm colors was clearly not thinking correctly.

That feeling of utter isolation crept back up on Rookie again, called up from a spot right behind his lungs and lashing through his chest. It wasn't… painful, merely uncomfortable, and incredibly annoying. In retrospect, Rookie preferred being alone – not necessarily 'Lone Wolf' but when in a 'safe' setting, he found his own company more comfortable than going out of his way to make friends with people who would probably die anyway. It was something he forced himself to learn after the Battle of New Jerusalem in Cygnus - after Yevgenny told him his life story and then blew the entire valley up. Rookie had sworn himself to destroy all Covenant forces he encountered in memory of Yevgenny, and he fully expected to hold himself to it.

Moving on from morbid thoughts, he glanced down the street again. Damn. The Covenant was all over New Mombasa and it was starting to annoy Rookie. A lot of things annoyed Rookie, but that wasn't the point. He entered another few-minute long battle and pulled various alien projectiles out of his body when the last Jackal finally fell, screeching, to the asphalt. He scowled at their dead bodies and jogged away from them, suddenly eager to just find his team members and just get the hell out of this city.

He heard the Brutes from a fairly far distance – they were quite loud, all things considered. They were yelling at each other, and when Rookie finally located them, he wasn't quite prepared for what he saw. A struggling creature, faintly spherical and rather rotund, was being held down by two Brutes while another fiddled with a large, menacing harness that it was trying to attach to the creature. Said creature looked – from a distance at least – moderately innocent, with small tentacle-like filaments extending from the underside of its body, a long neck and sleek head. It was trilling in alarm and fear, trying to wriggle away from the Brutes' arms.

Being less concerned with the innocent-looking balloon animal and more concerned with the furry gorilla-aliens, he ran up behind one of the Brutes holding the creature down and smacked the back of its head with the curved blade on his borrowed Brute Shot. It roared and snapped one meaty arm backwards, catching Rookie in the chest and throwing him backwards. The animal, now forgotten by the enraged Brutes, floated far away from the battle and curled up its tentacles until it was nothing but a ball with a head.

Rookie picked himself up off his backside and fired the Brute Shot at the, ironically enough, Brutes. One's shields failed as the armor dropped away from its hairy body, and the ODST curled his lip in instinctive disgust. One more blow from him ended that Brute, and Rookie turned quickly to face the next one. It was taller than the first, with an elaborate, curved headpiece that indicated its higher rank. Well, that and the Gravity Hammer it was shaking at Rookie in rage.

The ODST jumped backwards while flinging a pretty, glowing plasma grenade at the larger Brute. It bounced away from its armor and landed some feet away, exploding harmlessly. Cursing, Rookie dove to the side as the Hammer landed on the concrete, cracking the gray material and sending Rookie five feet farther than he normally would have gone. Panting, he scrambled back to his feet and drew the Brute Shot, firing until his clip was empty. He tossed it to the side, out of ammunition.

The shots hit the Brute in succession, the first two going through its overshield – wait, overshield? Bullshit! Where did it get an overshield? Rookie was outraged, but kept fighting. The second pair of Brute shots went through its normal shield, and the last pair hit the Brute itself. While his enemy was in this stunned state, the ODST ran forward and planted his arms on the shaft of the Gravity Hammer, pushing against the Brute while he brought his knee up into the alien's stomach. The Brute roared in pain and shook the Hammer, which took Rookie into the air and flung him from side to side as he hung onto the weapon for dear life.

Finally, the Marine got a good enough grip to bring his heel down on the hairy alien's face, apparently breaking something important because the Gravity Hammer and Rookie fell to the ground while the Brute clutched its nose. The ODST hefted the huge hammer and took a final, brutal swing at his enemy's cheekbone. The cheekbone - as well as everything else in the alien's face – shattered in a spray of blood. Rookie grimaced and hurriedly wiped the liquid from his visor before turning to face the final Brute.

It looked a little scared, but fought him anyway. A stupid choice; Rookie could forgive its transgressions. His Brute Shot discarded, he pulled his other weapon – a shotgun – off of his back. Running up towards the alien, it roared in turn and rushed him, and as it flung its body into Rookie's, he shoved the muzzle of his weapon into its stomach and fired. A delicious spray of intestines and blood exploded out of its back, and the Brute fell on top of Rookie, crushing him to the concrete.

Wriggling to get free, he finally pushed the huge, smelly body off of himself and rolled to his feet. He looked around, still breathless from the fight and even more so from the weight that was on top of him. Rookie picked up the Gravity Hammer again and strapped it to his back, and then reached underneath the mountain of alien and found his shotgun. Finally remembering something pretty vital, he looked up.

Where was that balloon-thing again?

* * *

Alexandra finally learned the value of hacking. Her brother, in his rebellious teenaged years, had made an insistence of being a 'badass' by hacking every system he could. It made her embarrassed to be with him in a library, because he made an insistence to break into the system and 'rearrange' everything as he saw fit. It had also gotten them kicked out several times from several different libraries.

Now she was stranded by a locked metal door blocking a roadway, with a computer interface and a screen asking for a password – and she had no idea what to do. Alex had pondered going around all of these locked doors, but most of the open passageways were crawling with Covenant and she would by no means survive an encounter – and in all truth, Alex wasn't that stealthy. So, she had decided to go through the locked roadway blocks, and had not come upon one until this moment. Could she climb over the wall? She studied the surrounding buildings, and determined that no, she really couldn't. This whole 'escaping' thing had its draw backs.

Finally, being the genius that she was, she figured out that she could ask the Superintendent. Alex - while not skilled in hacking - was fairly good with most technologies. She typed in the commands to take her to the city's mainframe when a symbol for the Superintendent popped up.

"Hello again, Ms. Washington, what may I do for you?"

"Shhhh! I don't know what's lurking around here. But, as for what you can do, you can open this door."

The Superintendent obeyed her wish for a lower volume, but did not obey her second order.

"Please show identification."

"Oh you're kidding… oh holy Jesus on a bicycle, you're kidding, right?"

"I do not understand your inquiry."

Alex let her head fall limply against the cool metal of the door, her hair falling forward into her face, momentarily blocking out the harsh lights of surrounding the door.

"…What kind of identification do you need?"

"A fingerprint is the proper identification." Alex pressed her fingers desperately into the small pad on the interface reserved for that purpose.

"I am sorry; you are not cleared to access this area. Please receive the proper identification before proceeding." Alex groaned. This was going to take much longer than initially intended.

She straightened and turned away from the door, pulling out a piece of paper that she had briefly sketched the Superintendent's map onto. Staring at the positions of blocked roadways and Covenant troops, she realized that there was no way through them. Turning back to the door, an idea popped into her head – devious, and probably immoral, but it would keep her alive, and that was all that mattered.

Now all she needed was a dead body.

* * *

End Notes: Well now, that was a little short. But bros, it's Sunday, and I've got homework coming out my arse. So this is short, and probably a little less well-thought-out than last chapter, but hooray for quick posting, amirite? Anywho, you know the drill, tell me what's wrong and I'll either A.) tell you to shove off or B.) fix it. ...Tomorrow is Monday, right? Yes? I might have a chapter tomorrow; that depends on how awesome and driven I'm feeling. The probability is low, but it's something to hope for.


	3. Chapter 3

Give Me Liberty

* * *

Notes: I wrote this over the weekend but haven't had any time to post. Sorry :C… I have a date with NaNoWriMo (yes, you heard me) so updates might be a little…slower. Alas, enjoy this delicious third chapter.

Edit: SORRY. IT'S REALLY SHORT. I've got no time tho, so :C...

* * *

Chapter III

* * *

Alex's lungs were burning, her legs were quivering unsteadily and her arms felt like frozen gelatin - all because of a dead body. Of course, it sounded ridiculous when Alex thought about it, but she was running through an alien-infested city with a dead police officer thrown over her shoulder, and she hadn't expected it to be this physically taxing. The young woman wasn't particularly out of shape, but wasn't exactly a body-builder either. In high school – which felt like forever ago now – she was on track and hiking club, et cetera, but hadn't been obsessed with the healthy lifestyle bullshit. She ate her share of junk food and Michael, being a moderately awesome cook, had prepared plenty of delicious things for her to get a little chubby on.

She leaned against a wall, letting the body sag to the ground, the dry blood crackling in protest. The police officer was as young or younger than the twenty-three year old; Alex grimaced at the look on his face. A plasma shot to the abdomen had killed him; his facial features echoed the death. He looked surprised, as if it wasn't happening, as if he could never die. His eyes were wide and glassy, his mouth slightly open, the blood that had dribbled out of it was dry and reddish-brown. He had only been dead for a few hours; Alex assumed that he became a corpse when the Covenant landed. The thought of the young man rushing into battle without knowing what he was getting into - but attempting to protect his city nonetheless – brought a frown to her face and a smile to her heart.

And a little bit of resolve: she would get out of this city, not only for herself, but for this young and very dead police officer. Alex had no idea who the young man was, but she would carry on his memory to the remainder of living humans. Someone had to remember him; someone had to remember all of the people dead in this city. She had to remember Michael. If Alex could do it, she would. That is, if she could get that door open.

The young woman picked up the body again and kept moving. Her plan went something along the lines of, 'get a dead person who is authorized to open the door'. It wasn't a particularly well thought-out plan – especially because there were not a lot of dead police officers this far out from the Covenant landing areas - but she would do what she had to. It was still at least three blocks to the door, and from what her earlink was telling her –

Alex stopped dead in the street, staring in front of her without seeing anything. Her earlink was… was… _whistling_ at her. It went from spitting out directions in the Superintendent's voice to _whistling_. It was a high whistle without screeching, a pleasant sound that was strangely inviting, as if the thing making it was asking to be friends. It stopped abruptly and the Superintendent came back on, sounding absolutely indifferent to what just happened. Alex frowned; slipped the technology off of her ear with one hand while balancing the dead police officer precariously on her shoulder with the other hand. She glanced over the piece of technology, looking for damage. There was none present; Alex fixed it back on and kept up with her snail's pace.

At last the door drew in sight. With a large sigh of relief she rushed up to it as fast as she could, her burden flopping around over her shoulder. She placed one hand on the door to steady herself while pulling the officer's arm out precariously, trying to place it upon the small pad while not falling over.

The pad did not respond. Realizing her error, she punched in a few keys in an attempt to get the Superintendent to 'wake up', so to say. Nothing happened. She deposited the body on the ground and focused her attention on the keypad; her mind wandered, trying to remember the way she had gotten to the mainframe before. The thing was that it was literally not responding at all – it was completely black. Alex leaned in to inspect the device for damage when the whistle she had heard earlier exploded in her head.

Alex leaped backwards with a restrained yell, her head blasting with this unexpected noise. She clawed at her earlink and threw it across the clearing – it hit the metal door and fell to the ground. The trilling stopped when the earlink left her body, and the young woman stared at the piece of technology in alarm. After a second she padded cautiously over to it. It did not look compromised, but she decided to leave it where it was. Picking up the police officer again, she approached the door, hoping to everything and anything holy that it would open.

She was just about to make contact with the keypad when it lit up, the Superintendent making a small noise of greeting. Alex blinked, sighed in relief, and brought the officer's hand up once more. As soon as the dead flesh made contact with the security pad, the city's AI made another noise – this one garbled and a little louder than normal – before bright green lights flashed and the hydraulics controlling the door finally consented and began to slide the heavy metal to the side.

Sure of her success, she stood with the body still slung over her shoulder, a smug look of satisfaction on her face and a hand in her pocket, ready to continue upon her path to freedom. The metal slid aside – and Alex immediately regretted this whole idea.

If anyone sued her – if anyone was still alive to sue her – she could blame it on the Superintendent, right?

* * *

Average Buoyancy had actually not been surprised by the battle going on below it – a Human soldier had attacked the Brutes holding the Engineer hostage, which wasn't so unexpected as the Covenant was fighting Humanity and all. What the floating alien _had _been surprised at was the… presence on the other side of the intersection. While Average Buoyancy wasn't entirely familiar with the city's door security system, it was fairly sure that the red light over the huge metal door meant it was closed. Something on the other side of that door – marked closed – was trying to get through, and Average Buoyancy could immediately tell because of his foolish Brute's earlier meddling.

All of the Brutes handling Engineers had been ordered to link the floating aliens into the Human network of New Mombasa as soon as possible – something about artifacts and finding and the Prophets, but Average hadn't been entirely informed nor listened in to the Brute's conversation, being entirely uninterested. The Huragok had then downloaded door codes from the hacked system and also a map; what Average had done covertly was a permanent link into the city's system. It would enable the alien to know whenever some thing was opening or trying to open a door near the Engineer – something that could've helped Average Buoyancy get out of the city, but no longer.

Now it was informing him of a presence – neither Human military nor Covenant, as the Huragok would have identified those forces immediately – was trying to get through, and being the curious being that it was, Average Buoyancy floated over to the door. As it drew closer, it accessed the camera overseeing the intersection and frowned as well as it could without a mouth.

The thing standing in the intersection appeared to be a human female, tapping on the keypad desperately. The city's AI was not responding favorably; she cursed and ran off screen. Average Buoyancy could hear the battle winding down behind it; it ignored it and kept watching, waiting for the civilian to come back. Finally the noises ceased behind the alien and the young woman drew back on screen – carrying a body, it looked like. Completely ignorant of her plan, the Engineer decided the woman was no threat and got to work on the door's locks.

When it was done, the door slid open with the sound of hydraulics and clean metal gliding over concrete. Average Buoyancy didn't fully understand the implications of the image presented to it; Rookie, who had drawn up behind the alien, did – and was severely alarmed.

* * *

About six things happened in that second that Rookie stopped behind the alien while it opened the door. Rookie had no idea what the alien was but merely wanted to stop it from floating away, and hadn't realized what it was doing until he was much closer. He was about to poke it in order to stop it from floating through the door when he was assaulted by a very strange and potentially disturbing image.

There was a young woman with a corpse slung like a bag of potatoes over her shoulder, her hand in her pocket and her face frozen in fear. She did two things simultaneously – dropped the body and turned to run. Rookie did one thing in the same second: ran after her. Average Buoyancy looked between the two in utter confusion as to what was going on.

* * *

Something in Alex's chest was balled up and ready to explode. The adrenaline of fear had already shot through her, so she wasn't quite sure what this new thing was. All she knew was running was a glorious, intelligent idea – she looked like she had just murdered a police officer and was now running from an _ODST_. In the long run it wasn't very intelligent; the ODST would most probably outrun her in distance and speed; that didn't particularly matter. Her sneakers hit the asphalt with soft thuds while the armored boots of the Marine behind her got increasingly closer. She bolted around corners, through cluttered intersections, over corner gardens crowded with dead grass.

It wasn't any use – she backed herself into a corner, stopped, panting, and slowly turned around, her hands in the air. The ODST didn't look particularly happy, but neither was he threatening: his shotgun was not raised and the … gods, was that a _Gravity Hammer?_ Alex bent over, one hand still in the air feebly while she panted. Gosh, this out of shape thing sucked. Rookie stopped, not panting and not making the effort to threaten a fellow human who was also fleeing the Covenant.

He wasn't quite sure why she had run, it was silly to run away from an ODST and while her earlier 'position' had been a little… questionable, he probably could've worked out that she needed the fingerprints to get through the door. Perhaps her nerves were so shot from her lovely New Mombasa death-jaunt that running from everything sounded like a good decision. Rookie didn't really care, he just wanted to get out of here and if she wanted to tag along, good for her.

Alex looked back up and straightened, her breath sufficiently back in her lungs. The ODST in front of her had one hand on his hip, looking skeptically at her through a darkened visor. His face, as such, was unreadable, but she wasn't quite sure she wanted to see his face anyway. A stuttered apology worked its way from her lips:

"S…sorry, I didn't kill him – the Covenant did. I just needed his fingerprints…" Rookie shrugged, turned on his heel, and began walking away. Alex blinked at his back and walked quickly to catch up. Standing slightly behind him sounded like a good idea – she did not want to get caught in the middle of a firefight and with her harebrained run through the city streets, she had probably run right into Covenant jaws. Stupid, stupid Alex.

Far back down the road and around several corners, Average Buoyancy was still very, very confused.

* * *

End Notes: What? Really? You expected me to let Alex run around on her own? Psh. Don't worry - she's only got Michael on her mind. In fact, she can't really fall in love with a guy she can't see the face of - he might be hideous! Is she really that shallow? Who knows, I haven't thought this out yet. This story is by the seat of my pants bros. No plot beforehand whatsoever. But don't worry, I can't write seriousbusiness mushy love stories - just mindless sex and humorous affection. DON'T WORRY, I'VE GOT THIS UNDER CONTROL, GUISE. Besides, Alex doesn't randomly hump everything that moves. That's weird. But does Rookie? Who knows. He's shifty, you know. Very shifty.

What am I even talking about pfffffffffffffff.

So tired. Review if you want. Review if you don't want. I'm just saying, you have to review. The awesome of Average Buoyancy compels you.


	4. Chapter 4

Give Me Liberty

* * *

Notes: Bleaaaaaaaargh. Sorry I just ate delicious, unhealthy food and my stomach is going "WHHHHHHYYYY OH GOD WHYYYYYYY" to me. Anywho; Reviewer Comment Replies:

Kaprikorn the Ancient: DOHOHOHO, FAR TOO LIGHT, IS IT? I think Average Buoyancy and Far Too Light should get together and have an Engineer dance-off. What? No feet, you say? They don't need feet – they have tentacles!

Insanepyro: Here you are dear C:

Martienne: ….Would you happen to be an author on rvbfics? If you are: LHALKENLSKAHGIEHNGHAE!11!1 My username on there is Rho brobro omgomgomg!

/rvbgasm

SpiritofSherwood: Nah, Rookie's shifty. That's why he doesn't talk – his voice would give away the shiftiness. I've got this all worked out in my head, so don't spoil it for me.

Mr. Gasbomb: Gratias tibi C:

DKrumpp007FTW: First off, can I just call you Krump? Typing this other stuff in makes me sad because I'm slow with numbers on this keyboard :C… Second: Rookie will always be the silent protagonist because I like canon and canon says he's a silent protagonist. I also like the challenge of forcing myself to convey his emotions or what he's saying or asking to Alex through his body language or the tilt of his head, et cetera. Alex isn't perceptive but I'm sure if Rookie gives her a hip thrust or something that she'll get the message. And hopefully, if it's a hip thrust, not give into temptation and/or call the rape help line. Do they have a rape help line? God I don't even…

Ok, back on track. Chapter Four, yes? Things are heating up. Look forward to some sexy Engineer action. Am I making this sound too much like a porn video? Unfunfunf, cue low lighting and bad music, please.

RIGHT OK.

* * *

Chapter IV

* * *

Average Buoyancy would find itself continually confused by human behavior this evening, although it didn't know it yet. Within ten minutes it had almost been enslaved again, been freed and then watched as two humans – it's 'savior' and that young woman – seemingly spontaneously sprinted off after one another. If this was some sort of Human mating ritual, the Engineer was even more thoroughly confused because New Mombasa hardly seemed like a safe or preferable place to make offspring.

Besides these complications, the Huragok looked around, now truly alone for the first time since its courtyard reverie. Something caught the alien's eye, or rather, eyes – a small piece of technology lying by the still-open door. Average Buoyancy had heard it or something similar in size to it hit the metal while it was trying to open the door for the girl; it wasn't sure if it had caused the girl to throw it at the wall or if she had merely felt like throwing things. Violent creatures, these humans.

Drawing closer, the Engineer realized it was a piece of communication technology, the type worn in an ear which transmitted sounds to the wearer. What was it called? Oh yes, an 'earlink'. The Huragok picked it up with a long, blue tentacle and studied it. It appeared to have no damage, and Average Buoyancy was still confused as to why the girl threw it at the door. Then it realized that if she was wearing it while it was opening the door, she probably heard a terrible whistling noise and would have immediately wanted to remove it from her ear. The Huragok deposited the small communication device in storage compartment in its metal framework directly behind its head and then looked around cautiously as it floated down the street.

The harness that was half-attached to its back was incredibly irritating and gave this uncomfortable pinching-pulling feel to the artificial flesh between the Engineer's air sacs. A greater danger than slight inconvenience was the probability that the unattached prongs could pierce Average Buoyancy's air sacs, deflating them and suffocating the organic computer. One terrified trill later and the Huragok increased its pace, following the signal of the ODST down several streets.

After a few minutes, Average Buoyancy realized that the signal was moving closer to it; the ODST and its captive was coming back to find the Engineer. Out of curiosity rather than ardent love for humanity, the alien stayed still, floating gently in the middle of the street, hoping to foreign and invisible Covenant gods that there were no other non-human factions in the area. A plasma sniper shot would hurt terribly, followed closely by death.

Its fears dissipated as it saw the brusque, angular profile of the ODST armor come into sight, followed by the almost equally angular silhouette of the young woman, who was all elbows and stiff posture. Average Buoyancy tilted its head, attempting to look as unthreatening as it could. It trilled softly; the ODST's head snapped up, scanning the road to either side of the alien before settling on the bulbous profile of the Engineer. The Marine appeared to relax; the girl stuck her head out from behind the soldier, trying to see what he was seeing. She blinked at the alien; Average Buoyancy trilled again. The woman frowned at the Huragok and kept walking behind the ODST.

One tentacle groped into the alien's storage container and brought out the earlink – when the girl saw it her eyes widened and she ran past the ODST, whose head followed her in something akin to alarm at her actions.

Average Buoyancy wasn't used to things running directly at it; the Huragok became alarmed at the young woman's abrupt action and trilled loudly while floating backwards. The female tripped on an imperceptible dip in the asphalt and grabbed out instinctively for anything around her in an effort to stop her fall. Her hand landed on the explosive harness.

The Huragok screeched in pain as the woman hit the asphalt with a dull thud.

* * *

Alex had not been expecting to return so safely; she had half-heartedly anticipated death at the hands of the Covenant while she was nearly unarmed – the pistol that she didn't know how to use being her only weapon – and completely unprotected. Picking up a police vest didn't sound like such a bad idea now, even though when she had earlier contemplated taking one from her burden, she had felt too guilty to attempt it.

Following behind the Marine, she had studied the insignia on his arms and back, not knowing what any of them meant but entertaining fantasies and wild guesses. In her mind the ODST was the Master Chief's brother, come to scour New Mombasa for survivors and single-handedly beat back the Covenant forces. Or something. For now, she knew nothing of her silent savior/captor – he had opened the door after all, hadn't he? Or was it that alien? That alien.

Her mind sidetracked again, focus sliding around like a particularly sleazy prostitute. Perhaps that wasn't the most appropriate simile, but Alex was still off in la-la land. They crossed some intersections and roads, turned down some alleyways and walked through a few little spurs. She had no idea where they were or where they were going as she didn't know New Mombasa well – Michael and she had only transferred here six months ago for his job – and she had no map.

Michael. Alex wasn't a woman to get melancholy or overly emotional under stress but she bit her lip while the Marine couldn't see her. Any soldier would not tolerate her more womanly tendencies and worrying about her lover would certainly not garner protective instincts. Right now, she needed the ODST to keep her safe and hopefully get her the hell out of here. He hadn't opened his maw yet, and she was grateful. Talking was not a favorite of hers and she didn't particularly want to waste time running her mouth off.

When it was clear that the Marine wasn't going to kill or incarcerate her, she had relaxed and followed him, trusting with childlike imprudence for him to lead her to safety. Trust was something that Alex gave freely and almost foolishly; she had an emotional detachment to most that she trusted and if the trust was betrayed, no harm no foul. Michael sometimes yelled at her for it; her calm attitude towards relationship problems infuriated him.

Snapping back into reality, she almost bumped into the Marine's back. He had stopped and was looking up the wide street that they had entered; she peered from around his shoulders at what he was staring at. The alien was floating there, looking innocently at them. Its tentacle reached up and removed something from a storage compartment; Alex's eyes shot open much wider when she saw what it was. That… that thing, that air sac had her earlink, and she needed it to get out of the city. She dodged around the ODST and began running for the alien, afraid that it would destroy the small piece of technology.

It didn't really occur to Alex that having an ODST get her out of the city was so much better than an earlink. Then again, she had to keep all her options open, and the earlink would help her do that. If the silent Marine ditched her, she would still have a fallback option. As it was, she was running full speed at an unknown Covenant alien who had something she wanted. It trilled in alarm and began to back up, and she was about five feet away from it when her foot hit something.

Time didn't necessarily slow down, but there was an explosion of adrenaline as her face fell to meet the asphalt. Her left arm fell out to catch something – anything! – to stop her fall; it hit something and she closed her fingers around it. There was a high-pitched whistle that was more like a pained screech as she ripped something out of the alien. Her own moan of pain came a second later as her face finally made contact with a dissatisfying noise. There was a solid crunch, followed by immense pressure in her sinuses and pain that she couldn't quite comprehend.

_Oh_ fuck.

* * *

Rookie had scanned each street and alley carefully before entering it; he did it for two reasons – the girl's safety and his own. Distracted by her presence, he could have easily been ambushed and that was not something professional or healthy to do. So he scanned, eyes flicking over prominent details and settling on the seemingly inconsequential ones. The ODST had found that it was the little things that get you.

They continued like this, the girl tagging along behind him as he subtly worked his way back to the alien. He found his mind wandering as he preformed his regular duties like a machine; he thought once more of his team members. He had found Dare's helmet so far, and now needed to find some trace of Mickey, Dutch, Romeo and Buck. Something in his gut told him that Buck would be looking for Dare; from what he had learned of the rest of his team members, Mickey and Dutch would try to contact one another first, followed by Romeo. Poor Romeo was the odd guy out but Rookie wasn't feeling particularly pitying.

Then he saw the alien, stopped, and studied the street, constantly aware of a surprise attack. It was alone, trying to look innocent and non-threatening, but the Marine knew its games. Just because he'd never seen this particular alien species before, he knew he'd try to do the same thing in its position. Its tentacle moved, up and into a compartment on its metal chassis, and drew out something small and unidentifiable from this distance. Something jostled him from behind and as that – stupid! – girl rushed forward, her eyes locked on the technology in the alien's tentacle.

Oh yes, it was quite cunning – or perhaps not. It didn't seem like it expected her to come rushing at it; it began floating backwards in alarm with a small trill. Then… oh god. Rookie winced inside his helmet as he saw the young woman's face hit the hard asphalt with a very painful-sounding noise. There was a small moan from her and a screech from the alien as the harness-like device attached to it was ripped out; Rookie jogged up to make sure both were okay.

A small pool of blood was collecting on the asphalt where the woman laid, not moving. She was breathing and her eyes were open wide, the pupils dilated and her mouth slightly open, panting. It was clear she was in a lot of pain and trying to fight it; after a few minutes of him watching her silently, she rolled to her knees while biting her lip almost to the point of making it bleed, her hands over her now very bloody nose.

It was broken, that much was clear, and it was beginning to swell. She looked like she wanted to fix it but her hands kept slipping; Rookie made a noise to draw her attention. She looked up at him from her kneeling position, the entire lower half of her face covered in blood. He removed her hands from her face almost gently; she lowered them without saying anything. Then he put his hands on her nose and tilted his head; she seemed to understand the Marine's question and made the smallest nodding motion.

Rookie had seen broken noses before, and had also seen how the medics fixed them. Two swift hand motions in order to mold the cartilage and done. There would of course be disfiguration, but noticeably less than if it was left alone, and of course the girl couldn't breathe, which had to be fixed. He moved his hands in one motion – she almost made a noise, but clenched her jaw shut – and then the other – she screamed, loudly and painfully.

He let her go as she curled up on the asphalt, panting even harder. Rookie picked up his shotgun again and glanced to the right; the alien was watching this interaction with the same curious expression, its own momentary pain forgotten. Rookie stood and walked over to an Opticam health package station, where he pulled a kit off the little shelf and walked back.

She looked up at him again, almost fearfully. He sighed and knelt down, administering drugs for the pain and an anti-swelling cream. She pulled off her sweatshirt – a white sweatshirt, he noted dully – and mopped the blood off her face and hands. Two-thirds of said white sweatshirt was now dark red with handprints in the remaining white area. Rookie stood again and turned away, sick of this bullshit. He had to _go_, not wait around and help civilians. No matter how 'desperate' that civilian was.

Although, wasn't it his duty? Surely he had an obligation… no. He would only help her if she proved to be able to handle herself; if she began to be baggage he would leave her behind, because he had enough on his plate without worrying about her. What was her name? The ODST wasn't quite sure she had told him. Not that it mattered.

She had stood up now, thanked him through still slightly blood-stained lips, with a slightly softer tone than absolutely necessary because of the swelling in her nose. He said nothing; didn't need to. Then she surprised him. Out of a muted-tone scarf wrapped around her hips she pulled a pistol, holding it incorrectly but being very careful with the unfamiliar weight.

"Teach me how to use this and you won't have to worry about me anymore. I'll go away and you can go do… whatever it is that ODSTs do." He stared at her through his darkened visor. He wished he could run his hands through his hair but had to settle for sighing once more. Women were _so_ stupid sometimes.

Again, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

End Note: I dunno. I'm not really feeling it this chapter. Maybe I wrote it too fast. Meeerrghh. Anyway: FRIDAY!1!11!1 You might have a new chapter by Sunday, it depends.

Where's Average Buoyancy, you ask? Oh well. That's a good question, innit? No, I've never broken my nose but I know someone who has; his description sounded painful and I may have... exaggerated. I don't know how you treat broken noses; I'm too tired to find out. Maybe next chapter I'll come back and edit, but not right now.

review C:


	5. Chapter 5

Give Me Liberty

* * *

Notes: not much to say today; thank you to everyone who reviewed and everyone who added GML to their favorites/alerts C:

Kaprikorn: LIES

Martienne: I'm so guilty of being lazy :C I hate writing reviews but I'll make an effort – FOR YOU 3 Also, your suggestion of not doing the same viewpoint was SO obvious but I didn't even see it; thank you because I am a numbskull and need that pointed out to me. This chapter should be much better on that point.

Brother of the Moon: D'awww thank you ;u;!

* * *

Chapter V

* * *

Ha, ha, ha. Somewhere far away, Rookie knew that someone was laughing at him. He did absolutely _nothing_ to deserve this, and it was still happening. The alien, formerly forgotten, was now floating off to the side of the road, occasionally trilling and watching this pathetic excuse of a target practice. He had to seriously think about moving his ass and finding his team members, but if he could just let this young woman get her grip right, he could finally leave her and go along on his way.

Of course, there was that niggling little seed of guilt that if he left her, she'd get her face plasma'd. Technically, all Marines were expected to protect civilians, and ODSTs were included in that sub-group. Well, she had gotten this far hadn't she? With that earlink, anyway, which she gingerly retrieved from the alien, who poked her nose with a tentacle, making her recoil – mostly because she was weirded out rather than the poke hurt her.

And of course, from what he had seen of her character so far, she was determined and could think on her feet, but not think _well_ on her feet. Many things that were blatantly obvious from the start to Rookie didn't occur to the girl until later. She was smart, but in a sit-down-and-think-about-this way, not a holy-crap-Covenant-escape-plan kind of way. Her entire plan had hinged on that earlink, and without it she was dumb and blind, running around without protection or armor.

Yeah, Rookie had to stick with her. He didn't think he could righteously say he tried his hardest to protect her if he left her behind. Not to mention that alien seemed to have a fascination with the girl, and any Covenant species – especially an unknown one like this – that he could bring to Command, the better. Realistically, he wasn't in it for the increased pay – rather, he didn't want to kill the alien and if he left the girl, he left the alien too.

He had shown her how to position her hands and brace her arm muscles so far, and she was taking shots at a mark on the wall across the street, trying to hit the center of it. Her aim was fairly good – it was the fact that she'd only started using firearms twenty minutes ago that was injuring her accuracy. Her nose was still an ugly color but the swelling had greatly reduced and it had stopped bleeding. It looked pretty painful; Rookie imagined that there would be a noticeable shape change when it healed, no thanks to his impromptu nose 'surgery'.

The Marine tapped her on the back and motioned with his head; she appeared to get the message and lowered the pistol, tucking it back into that silly-looking scarf that he assumed was acting as a holster. She put her blood-stained sweatshirt back on and turned back towards him, ready to go wherever he was leading her. She seemed to be awfully trusting for a sensible adult.

A look of confusion crossed her face and then:

"Oh, oh gods, I'm sorry I never introduced myself!"

Something in Rookie wanted to smack her and the other something agreed.

"Alexandra Washington, uhhhh… sir?" She stuck out slightly pink – from the blood – hand. He looked at it, acquiesced, shook it firmly.

Then he started walking. He was about fifteen steps into his walking when he realized she wasn't following him; the ODST turned, a little irritated.

Rookie frowned at what he saw.

* * *

Alex was getting ready to follow the Marine when she felt tentacles slip around her torso. Her face contorted into something between laughter at the odd feeling and fear at the fact that there was tentacles around her chest – she turned slightly and the alien's face bumped into her cheek.

It was an odd feeling, cool but not damp, with a slightly scaly texture. She realized with a jolt that the spherical alien was trying to stop her from either leaving it and or following the ODST; she hoped it was not the latter. Its adorable eyes blinked at her and it trilled softly. Another tentacle reached up –

"Oh you _bastard!_" The cry was almost involuntary, for the thing had taken her earlink once more. She spun, or at least tried to but got stuck in the tentacles. It trilled again, a warning noise, as if to say that it wasn't trying to hurt her or steal her earlink permanently.

Alex made a bigger effort to move away from the tentacles; she was surprised at the strength of the alien. After a few seconds of struggling it slipped the earlink back on her ear – the woman was surprised enough to stop moving for a second.

The voice of the Superintendent was talking to her, but it wasn't saying directions. The tentacles released her and spun her around to look at the balloon alien.

It was making symbols with two of the smaller tentacles, ones that were capped with small cilia-like apparatus. The words coming from the voice of New Mombasa's AI were working in accordance with the symbols, telling her what each one was…

Oh. The alien was trying to teach her sign language. Not human sign language, of course, but the sign language of whatever race this alien was.

Alex, by either luck or fate, had a great memory. She had always wanted to be a historian and was – up until the Covenant attack – taking courses at the New Mombasa University to get a degree in modern and ancient history – not to mention the supremely old stuff, like Rome. Ancient history these days was counted as Flappers and World War I all the way up to the American 9/11.

This affinity for history meant she could remember a _lot _of stuff – numbers, dates, names, the tiniest detail. The only thing she had issues with was directions; as mentioned before, she had been in New Mombasa for over six months and still barely remembered the way to the University and work.

So she was using her 'gift' now, committing each symbol that the alien was making along with its translation to memory.

What it was spelling out was a little puzzling.

* * *

Average Buoyancy had embraced the woman in an attempt to keep her from moving away from it; it could not float as fast as the humans could run or even walk. She had acted alarmed at first, struggling against its tentacles while it took her earlink and put the necessary information into it, but now she was facing it, her head slightly tilted and elbows still out at that awkward angle. She wasn't very fluid for a human – the Huragok had always expected humans to be graceful.

Her eyes were on its cilia, and the Engineer could practically see the gears turning in her head. She was translating, slowly, painstakingly, but finally Average Buoyancy could communicate, something that it had been trying to do all along.

Then she spoke, as if to confirm what it was saying.

"My… name is… Average… Buoyancy?" The alien bobbed its head in affirmation.

Then it continued.

"I am… a… Huragok… or, Engineer. I do not… want… to be in the Covenant… any longer." Average Buoyancy trilled, kept signing.

"You are my… salvation. Please… get me… out. I have… information."

She frowned.

"You mean, Covenant secrets? Or just information like the sky is blue and the grass is green?"

The Engineer signed that it had Covenant Secrets. The girl sighed.

"Okay, Av – yes, that's what I'm calling you, 'Average Buoyancy' is too much to say. My name is Alex and that over there is my friend, Mr. ODST. I will ask him if he has room for both a civilian and an alien."

The newly named 'Av' trilled loudly in excitement.

* * *

Rookie watched in something like horrid fascination as the alien tentacle-raped the girl. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the correct assumption but… oh, oh thank god. Now they were…. talking?

The Marine was so confused. He jogged up behind Alex and she turned just in time to bump into his unforgiving body armor. She winced and hissed softly as her nose was unfairly bumped.

"Ok, Mr. ODST, this is Average Buoyancy. He's a Huragok, which apparently is known by humans as Engineers. He wants out of this city and we're his ticket; I want to know if you will be able to handle protecting him."

Protecting _it?_ What about protecting _her?_ She clearly overestimated her skills. Alex was looking at him pleadingly; apparently the alien had managed to charm her with it's… beady… little… adorable eyes – yes, they were adorable, Rookie had to admit, albeit reluctantly.

He sighed, shrugged, really didn't care at this point, just wanted to finally _go_. Not only had her 'target practice' been unsatisfactory, it was also loud and probably drew attention from hostile forces. They were wasting too much time and Rookie had almost none of that to begin with.

The Marine motioned impatiently as the Huragok and Alex looked at one another.

Then, a completely stupid and spontaneous question:

"Do you think I can ride him?"

* * *

Alex knew it was probably stupid to ask, but she did it anyway.

Av floated backwards, shaking his head emphatically – the Marine just gave her a deadpanned look, or at least what she thought was a deadpanned look through his darkened HUD.

She shrugged and began walking, aware that she was keeping the ODST from his mission; she felt slightly guilty for it. Thinking for a second, she pulled out the pistol, realizing that she would probably need to use it.

They walked – the Marine in front, Av in the middle and Alex in the back. She scanned the area, not knowing how the ODST could see but finally figuring that he probably had night vision and could see perfectly.

Having no idea where the Marine was going, she merely followed behind, trying her best to not differ from the ODST's steady gait. He apparently had to slow down a little for Av, who was going as fast as he could but still couldn't keep up.

Things were going well until the plasma sniper shot whizzed by her head.

She ducked to the ground with a yell, trying her best not to land on anything that would touch her nose or otherwise injure her; The Marine whirled around and fired his recently aquired assault rifle over top of her head; Av trilled in alarm and immediately… woah.

Alex's limbs and body were… glowing. The ODST seemed surprised as well, but ignored it and kept firing at the sniper, who was invisible to Alex. The young woman studied her arms and legs for a second before scrambling to her feet, suddenly aware of the hostile aliens coming around the corner behind the Marine's back. She aimed as best she could with her pistol, fired, missed. Biting her lip in concentration she fired again and caught the Grunt in the chest. She fired twice more; they were both hits in non-vital areas.

It squealed before crumpling to the ground; the Grunt next to it cried in alarm and shouted curses at Alex. The Marine was finished with the sniper; he turned and took shots at the cursing Grunt and the Jackals behind it. The Covenant quickly died. Something in Alex was extremely jealous at his skill; another something in her told her that he had had unknown _years_ of experience, and she had only had a gun for half an hour.

Then, a Brute – the huge alien rounded the corner, saw humans and fired its Spiker – not at the humans, but at Av. He whistled loudly and drifted behind a large pillar while one or two shards of ammunition glanced of the - oh, so that's what it was. The glowing stuff that Av had coated all three in the party with was shielding; Alex found herself thanking the alien silently.

The ODST had moved in, firing at the Brute with the Spiker until he killed it. He turned back to check on his charges, not aware that yet another Brute had come around the corner and – oh _god dammit_.

There was only a few seconds that Alex had to register what was happening before the Brute Shot made contact with her body; she had bolted off to the side – not quickly enough to dodge it but just enough to have it glance off of her side instead of hitting her square in the chest.

She was still flung backwards several feet and her lungs still had all of the air knocked out of them and she still landed painfully against a wall but she wasn't dead – which was what mattered. Of course, Alex had Av to thank for that. His shielding had no doubt saved her life – and would save her life again in the strenuous hours to come.

The young woman picked herself off the ground, and, in a slight fit of fury at being shot at by aliens, took aim through the scope on the pistol and fired. It caught the Brute in the head; The Marine had already disabled its armor and Alex's shot killed it.

The ODST glanced at her, not saying anything - she assumed that he was quietly praising her. He was, in actuality, making sure she wasn't dying, but Alex had a vivid imagination.

Adrenaline now fully fired in her veins – for it always seemed to take longer than necessary to kick in – she sprinted forward, looking for more victims. The Marine might have yelled something out; she wasn't sure if it was an actual word or just a cry of irritation that she was running towards danger once again.

It wasn't until the Jackal was a foot away that she realized there was no more ammunition in her pistol.

It seemed to Alex that she was getting stupider by the hour.

* * *

End Notes: Alex is actually an intelligent person, that she isn't a soldier and hasn't experienced battle before is contributing to the fact that she's being AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING IDIOT.

Av's pretty hot tho, amirite? They do actually speak in sign language, according to the Halopedia, so yes, I'm legit canon.

U c, I plan for Alex and Av to be friends; I'm not going to touch upon that in this chapter. Maybe Alex will learn 'Mr. ODST's' nickname sooner or later. I can't imagine how she'd know without another on his team saying, "yo Rookie", for Alex would have no clue otherwise and I'm not making her omniscient.

Sigh. I'm working my very hardest to keep Alex an interesting person – am I succeeding?

reviewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww - wwwwith extra wwwwwwww's C: Just kidding, don't, that's really annoying~


	6. Brief Interlude

GML "_CHAPTER VI_"

* * *

Brief Intermission

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. This was supposed to be the sixth chapter, but, uh...

End of the quarter = shitton of tests, projects and other menial tasks = no updates.

I know it's been a week and a half but I haven't had any time to churn out a decent chapter, and I don't want to do a shitty job. I'd rather take my time than give you lovely people something substandard. I have LatinGermanChemistryHistory tests tomorrow and I barely have time to scrape out this apology.

So just hold on a few more days :C I'm terribly sorry for how long you've had to wait already! I've been kicking myself over and over again because I feel like I'm letting you down, but my academics - unfortunately - come first. Thanksgiving Break is fast approaching and you can expect at least two chapters during that timeframe, and I'm hoping for one before. I also have an English essay due before break so no promises, but please forgive me, I'm begging you :CCCCCCCC

Valete amici,

heeeeeeeeelicase

PSSSTTT, ANY OF YOU SEEN THE BBC HOLMES SPECIAL? YES? ISN'T BENEDICT CUMBERLAND (the guy who plays Sherlock) ATTRACTIVE? WOULDN'T HE MAKE A NICE ALEX MERCER? I'm serious, he looks like Alex Mercer. No lie. Go google him, I'm not even joking.

And for any Machinima fans: I STRONGLY RECOMMEND _HARD JUSTICE _BY digitalph33r; it's so awesome I don't even... I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before.

EDIT: WOW GUYS, 1,000+ VIEWS FOR GML!111! maybe not something to get worked up about but I rarely enjoy recognition so this is absolutely fabulous. I think I need to go lie down... keep 'em coming~


	7. Chapter 6

Give Me Liberty

* * *

Notes: Nah, no excuses, just a new chapter. I guess this is chapter six but it feels awkward because it's in the chapter seven slot. Eh, no big deal. I, uh, kinda forgot about what was going on until I read some of the old chapters and I was just kinda like, "Oh alright that's pretty… depressing actually, why did I make Alex such a failure at everything?" But then I remembered my plot line and things were very nice, very nice indeed.

Am I the only one who thinks Rookie should be slapping her at this point? I mean, really?

* * *

Chapter VI

* * *

One shot – two – and it was dead, neon blood covering the asphalt and Alex stopping herself noisily in sneakers that weren't made for this running-shooting-surviving stuff. Rookie reloaded his assault rifle and advanced towards this idiot civilian, his eyes roaming around methodically in the eternal search for more enemies. None were present at the moment so he stopped behind her as she panted the rest of her adrenalin away and brushed herself off, the shielding slowly fading from both of their bodies. The Engineer floated cautiously from its position behind the pillar and trilled loudly in an attempt to garner attention.

Rookie, finally calmed down enough to deal with her, found himself incredibly annoyed. Beyond words, actually, even though he didn't have many to say to begin with. This stupid girl who barely knows how to use the firearm that he found her with goes blundering into all sorts of mishaps, hurting herself and almost ending her own goddamn life.

Some part of him knew he was being a little harsh, the other part didn't give a damn. She was slowing him down and making a mockery of a military operation – not that Ms. Dare hadn't shot it to hell with her last-minute adjustments to their trajectory, which, Rookie reminded himself angrily, caused his pod to land _in a building_. It could've killed civilians, or, even worse, killed him!

_Calm down._ He took a deep breath, waiting for the Engineer to catch up with them before moving again. Alex heard his huff and seemed to understand it, looked down at her feet. Hopefully they could get to the next beacon, pinpointed on his map that the Superintendent downloaded for him oh-so-kindly within the first minutes he was in the city.

He was looking up, scanning once more for jackal snipers when he heard a soft cough. Rookie ignored it and kept moving, armored feet crushing the traces of humanity left on the streets – papers fluttering in the breeze, a lost Chatter, a discarded toy. Then the cough got louder and he spun on his heel, leveling his assault rifle in Alex's face with a look that could kill. Well, could kill if she could see his face, anyway.

She blinked at it, alarm evident in her face. Then she let out a small, nervous laugh and took a step backwards.

"Ah-heh, look, I know I'm probably a pain in your ass but I will get killed because I am so incompetent at using weapons and surviving in general. However."

She paused, he sighed and lowered his weapon. The girl had her points – she was a pain in his ass, and she would probably get killed without his presence.

"However, if I shut up and stay behind you until we reach a city exit, and I don't go idiotically rushing into any more encounters with the enemy, could you please look for someone for me?"

Oh my god. Rookie was going to kill her. It would happen. No one would even know, just two bullets and he would be rid of her forever. His conscience would never let him live it down, but it would be good while it lasted.

He kind of lost it, and her strangled yell as he seized the front of her bloody sweatshirt and raised her into the air did nothing to stop him. Alex's feet dangled uselessly as she stayed very, very still.

Oh, how he'd love to yell right now.

* * *

Alex had thought it was a good idea. Then again…

She was actually going to ask this unnamed, unknown ODST to look for her boyfriend. Alex would, of course, detail his profession, as it was important to the city of New Mombasa and finding Michael might even aid the ODST in whatever his mission was.

Since his mission was clearly _not_ helping civilians. But suddenly she was in the air, one fist at her throat and her sweatshirt bunched up as it supported her weight. She let out a single strangled yell while he was most probably glaring daggers at her, even though she couldn't tell through his darkened visor.

Alex said nothing, figured that if she was going to die at the hands of another human – as depressing and ridiculous as it seemed, when Humanity was in a war with the Covenant – she could at least not be blubbering like an idiot beforehand. Blinking down at him, with her feet dangling a few inches off the ground and that fist putting more pressure than was comfortable on her throat, she heard a whistle.

An _angry_ whistle.

Average Buoyancy floated faster than he had ever done before, wrapped tentacles around the Marine's armored forearms and yanked.

The most surprising thing, of course, was that he actually let go. Alex fell back to her feet, stumbling slightly but still managing to stay upright, and watched as things progressed into an even more alarming scene. Rookie leveled his assault rifle at Av instead, and the alien trilled angrily once again as that familiar, glowing shielding covered his body.

Av had all of his tentacles wrapped around the Marine in some capacity, and was making the most threatening noises either of the humans had ever heard come from him.

Alex was kind of panicking, and when she panicked… well, she made really stupid decisions. Stupider than she had already, if that was even possible.

Two seconds of hesitation on her part was all it took for her to decide that leaping on the ODST was a brilliant idea.

* * *

Average Buoyancy was not happy, not happy at all. What had seemed like a perfect situation – a human soldier to ferry it to safety and a human civilian with a good memory to translate for it – had rapidly deteriorated into said human soldier threatening the human civilian for reasons unknown to the Huragok.

So it reacted the way it felt most suitable, which was to neutralize the threat of the Marine's weapon. It was working until he leveled his firearm at the Engineer in turn and Av was left to do nothing but trill angrily as the girl watched wide-eyed from the sidelines.

Something hit the soldier from the side and he stumbled, not prepared for the weight. Average Buoyancy immediately retracted his tentacles in an effort to not have them torn off, and suddenly Alex was angrily talking to the Marine's unseen face.

"What the hell is your problem, ODST? You threaten another human being who is only asking for your protection and about ready to offer you something _valuable_ in return and then when a – okay, fine, an alien, but a friendly alien, tries to stop you from blowing her brains out, you turn your gun on _it_. So I don't really understand what your motives are, but at least you could say 'Fuck off, kid' instead of leveling your goddamn assault rifle at my face.

"If you don't want me here, say it, don't just walk around and let me annoy you all goddamn day. If you have an operation or mission to do, ignore me, let me go along my way and maybe I'll get out safely but it's not your problem, is it? I thought Marines – especially ODSTs – had some scrap of honor that they wouldn't walk around shooting the people they're supposed to be protecting in the face."

Her face was red, she was angry and her long – albeit quickly spoken – accusations finally stopped.

The Marine underneath her looked completely unruffled and pushed her off, if only a little more gently than he would have five minutes ago.

Av trilled in curiosity, because it really didn't understand humans at all. This whole thing should've ended in Alex and itself being deceased, but it hadn't and the Engineer was quite puzzled as to why it hadn't. Of course, there was the pesky thing that humans liked to call 'free will', but the Huragok hadn't really experienced it first-hand yet. Well, until now.

They had both gotten to their feet; Alex still looked angry, her arms crossed and hips slanting at an irritated angle as she stared anywhere but the alien and the Marine. Said Marine was still unaffected but had noticeably calmed down, and he replaced his assault rifle to its proper place on his back.

That's when the ringing started.

* * *

Rookie was calm now. His impromptu tackling-and-being-yelled-at session had brought him back to his senses and he no longer had the desire to shoot either of the entities next to him. Well, the desire wasn't so strong, anyway. The civilian had her points – although he was intrigued as to what this 'valuable' thing might be. She didn't seem like the type to be carrying secret Covenant positions around with her, but what the hell did he know?

Then again, she could've been talking about that Huragok. It had information, surely, but something about it didn't exactly assure Rookie that it would be forthcoming with said information.

When the ringing started, Alex and he both visibly tensed, their heads snapping towards the source of the noise. The Engineer trilled curiously and floated towards the cause of it. Not about to let an alien intercept any human communication, Rookie got in front of the Huragok and strode quickly around a few corners.

Oh. It was a phone terminal – the Marine nearly laughed. He was fearing that it would be something far worse or far more deadly, but a phone call? Not very threatening. Clomping over the terminal, he stared at it, wondering if he should pick it up. Alex appeared behind him shortly, her anger lost and her face inquisitive.

She reached for it, he smacked her hand away and picked it up himself.

They listened to the entire thing, his information card storing it all so he could come back to it later. Alex's eyes had widened, her face getting paler by the second and her lips compressing into a thin line.

When it finished, she turned away and leaned on the terminal.

"That's Sadie. Michael's boss' daughter."

Rookie had no idea what any of what she just said meant.

* * *

But Alex knew what was going on, and her stomach was sinking by the second. Sadie and Alex were acquaintances, nothing more, and Sadie had helped Alex get her bearings around New Mombasa within the first few months that she was there. The few days that Alex had accompanied Michael to work – days that she didn't have classes – she had met Sadie and Dr. Endesha and merely watched from the background as Michael and Dr. Endesha did their work on the Superintendent.

But if Sadie had left – or tried to leave – the city without her father, that meant that Dr. Endesha was dead or still in the bowels of the city, and Michael was with him. But Alex didn't have enough information to draw any conclusions yet, and she glanced up at the ODST who was either staring at her or the street behind her.

"Alright, my, uhm, boyfriend works with that girl's father. Dr. Endesha practically runs this city, because he has full control of the New Mombasa's AI." It felt odd to be talking to a complete stranger about her boyfriend's occupation, but she knew it was important.

"While I don't really… have enough information to gather any conclusions as of yet, if Sadie left this city without her father – it is highly unlikely for her to leave without him – then he is still somewhere underneath this city, dead or just staying with the Superintendent until he _is_ dead. And I can guarantee it that Michael is with him."

Theoretically, this had no relevance, but Alex didn't even know what this man's mission was. If it had anything to do with New Mombasa, there was a good chance that it also had to do with that A.I., and Alex wasn't going to let them leave Michael's body down there. If he even was dead. The ODST said nothing and moved on, an action which sparked a small pit of rage in Alex's stomach.

How could he be so silent all the time? Was he mute? Did he just not care? She couldn't effectively help him if he didn't talk.

Alex huffed. He ignored her. She huffed again and started following him down the street, as he was led by some unknown beacon towards some unknown destination.

* * *

Average Buoyancy followed them, still confused as could be but willing to figure this out. These humans were quite intriguing after all – from annoyance to fury to complete calm, they seemed so volatile in such a structured pattern. Very interesting, indeed.

Wait a minute…

Alex was following the Marine… further into the city? Shouldn't they be going towards the edges, somewhere out?

The Engineer felt something eerily similar to suspicion – but suspicion of what?

* * *

DUNDUNDUN

I really hate this chapter.

I feel like there isn't enough linking material between Dr. Endesha and Michael and …. I don't know. But no, Mike Branley is NOT Alex's Michael.

Everything is bad this chapter, but I guess I have to settle into this again, yeah?

Review C:


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